Kolkata Clash: Police Use Batons on Left Student Protesters

Kolkata: Clashes broke out between members of the Left students' organisations and police personnel during a protest in central Kolkata on Friday over the NEET paper leak, prompting security forces to baton-charge and fire tear gas shells to disperse the agitators, a senior officer said. The protestors blocked the Dorina Crossing area in the Esplanade area, hurled footwear and water bottles at the men in uniform.

The police were seen having a tough time in trying to remove the agitators from the intersection of vital thoroughfares on a working day.

Till reports last received, the police had not managed to disperse the crowd from the region despite resorting to a mild lathi charge and even firing some tear gas shells.

A section of protesters, who claimed to be supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party and called off their rally after they were denied police permission to hold a separate protest march, had joined the Left activists at the rally's terminating point in Dharmatala, police said.

A large contingent of RAF, a combat force of the city police and central paramilitary forces remained deployed at the spot to try and stop the situation from spiralling out of control.

The protestors were demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak.

Earlier in the afternoon, Left students' organisations held a rally in Kolkata, which originated from Sealdah in northern parts of the city to Esplanade in central Kolkata in solidarity with the nationwide students' movement against the alleged irregularities in the medical entrance test, NEET.

With placards in their hands, the protestors raised slogans demanding Pradhan's resignation, the dissolution of the National Testing Agency (NTA) that conducts NEET, and justice for students allegedly subjected to police excesses during the demonstrations in the national capital.

The demonstrators lent their support to the demands raised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which has been spearheading protests over the NEET paper leak.